Number 8 - The Oracle
by azureice20
Summary: Reginald Hargreeves adopted 8, not 7 children following the mysterious births of October 1989… …Following the announcement of her father's death, how will Pythia manage to reconcile with her siblings after many years of estrangement, especially with an apocalypse looming. Based on the Netflix Show.


Pythia Hargreeve woke up on the day of her father's death the same way she woke up every other day – crankily and with the loud siren of a police car wailing nearby. Rolling off of the bench she was curled up on, she packed up her few belongings into her bag – a thin blanket, a second set of clothes, a well-worn book and a wallet containing a multitude of credit cards, debit cards, cash and cheques.

"Miss, you need to clear off." The police officer irritably ordered, obviously nearing the end of a round of clearing the homeless off of the benches of the city.

"MY apologies, my good sir." Pythia sarcastically remarked as she got up. "I shall simply find myself a lovely pier to jump off of and be out of your hair."

The officer rolled his eyes.

"Whatever."

Pythia waited until he was heading back towards his car before flipping him the bird. Peering at the sky, she saw that it was still night time. Looking around, she realised she was quite far from her current anchor base. It was probably time to head back anyway. Slipping into the shadows of the alleyways she called home, Pythia wandered back towards the gym where Diego lived.

Diego didn't really know she hung around these parts, but she didn't particularly care. As long as she knew he was safe, and by extension, the others – Diego kept tabs on the messages over his police scanner, particularly the ones about overdoses – Pythia was secure.

As she wandered back, she noticed a familiar figure standing in a shop window, staring at a news report. Vanya. The one sibling everyone forgot. Well, was _encouraged_ to forget in any case. Pythia had no idea what had happened between her leaving the Academy and now (well she had SOME idea, she corrected herself, fingers brushing the worn-out copy of Vanya's autobiography in her bag), but something seemed seriously off. Wandering over to another media shop, after Vanya was gone, one could not ever be too careful, the answer became clear. Father was dead.

Pythia's heart skipped a beat. The man who had broken everything and everyone near and dear to her, including herself, was dead.

"HA!" She burst out, before descending into laughter.

"Are you alright?" A passer-by asked her as the laughter became mixed in with bitter tears.

"I've never been happier." Pythia replied. "My father is finally dead!"

The passer-by shot her an odd look before continuing on their path as quickly as possible. Pythia watched them leave before digging out her wallet. It would be easiest to simply hail a taxi to get to the Academy, but it wasn't raining, and the money wasn't for taxi cabs. She wanted to wait until it was morning before crashing the party anyway.

Shifting her bag into a more comfortable position on her shoulders, Pythia headed into the nearest 24/7 shop and bought three bottles of cold coffee, before beginning to walk, aimlessly, around the city. As dawn reached its cold fingers over the pier, she turned and headed directly for the Academy. To the hell she had walked away from many, many years ago.

-UA-

The entire concept of a mansion had always been an oddity to Pythia, despite having grown up in one. The thought of Mum's ginormous task in cleaning up after eight children, a monkey and an asshole always puzzled Pythia. Until she figured out that Mum was a robot. So, for about a tenth of a second, in that case.

Sneaking in was pathetically easy. Pythia's room was only on the first floor and she had left through the window. Mum had evidently never locked it, probably in the vain hope of her returning. It was how Pythia had left it, devoid of anything that discerned a personality. Much like the woman herself. Dumping her bag, Pythia took out Vanya's book and opened it back up onto the only chapter she ever re-read. The only chapter that mattered to her. _Number 2 - Diego_. Pythia's sister had been grossly vague about the details of their brother's 'training', but Pythia could always feel the pain echoing from the pages. Vanya had known about the sadistic ways they all had been trained. She had done Vanya wrong, but their father had done them _all_ wrong.

Exiting her room, Pythia wandered around the mansion, wondering at the quiet. It wasn't to last though, as she heard the cutting remarks floating up the stairs from Diego to Vanya. Ducking behind a section of wall (she really didn't want to put up with an angry Diego) Pythia waited until Allison too was gone before seeking out the only _normal_ sibling in the house.

She was standing in the library with Pogo, staring at Five's poster.

"Oh, hey Pythia." Vanya greeted her meekly, noticing the other girls' entrance.  
"I've missed you." Pythia grinned, walking over towards her sister, but carefully staying a few feet away.

"Haven't you…" Vanya began.

Pythia shook her head.

"Diego's pissed. Allison is irritated, probably at Klaus who I bet is high because who can be _that_ happy. Luther is confused. You are melancholy, no change there, and Pogo is, as always, unreadable." Pythia reported, smiling at Pogo. "Luther's awfully hard to read now though. I _wonder_ why."

Vanya shrugged, glancing at the book Pythia held in her hand.

"You know, I can shut _that_ off, but you are projecting very loudly." Pythia remarked, lifting the book up. "My chapter… I…"

"You're not mad?" Vanya wondered aloud.

Pythia chuckled.

"Oh, I was." She admitted. "But then, I got the fuck over it because, you know what, I don't care!"

Vanya sighed a sigh of relief. Pythia wrinkled her nose.

"Regret isn't a nice look on you, sis." She observed. "Shall we go face the hounds?"

Turning on her heel, Pythia headed towards the hallway. As she tried to locate the others, she spotted the first of the other four laughing as he kissed a box that looked quite valuable.

"Klaus." Pythia greeted.

"Oh, sister of mine!" Klaus grinned. "How good of you to join us all."

Pythia glared at him.

"You. Are. High." She accused him angrily.

"And?" He asked cheekily, patting her cheek.

Pythia jerked back as if he slapped her, tears filling her eyes. Klaus paused, shaking his head.

"You promised you had that under control."

"That was years ago… before…" Pythia shook her head. "Fuck. That bad?"

"Don't you start in on me, too." Klaus rolled his eyes, before pulling a face at someone only he could see.

Pythia shook her head, irritated. This was getting nowhere fast, and soon enough everyone would be convening back in the library for a family meeting. Grabbing hold of his collar, she dragged him into the room, dumping him onto the couch before hunting out a stool for herself to perch on.

-UA-

Everyone stared at each other, some drinking, some not, but silence pervaded. Pythia glared at the floor, waiting for someone to start talking, but the second Luther opened his mouth, the shit that came out was laughable. Tuning out the entire conversation was easy, instead, Pythia began to attempt to calm the raging emotions in her mind. It grew though, until people began to walk out. Once two people had left, Pythia couldn't even tell at this point, she ran out and upstairs to her room with its lead walls and door. She could hide up here quite comfortably until the funeral. Food would be easy. Mum would hate it, but Pythia could always just call up a take-away by sneaking downstairs. She had enough cash anyway.

Music began to drift downstairs after a while. One of Luther's old records. Smiling, Pythia left the room. Everyone felt so much calmer and it was a mercy to Pythia's fraying temper. Until the thunder cracked, and something appeared outside.

Racing out, Pythia and the others could only gape in awe at the temporal anomaly. Klaus, being himself, threw a fire extinguisher through it. Everyone huddled then behind Luther as the anomaly spat out someone. Pythia, knowing _exactly_ who these emotions of confused,grateful,happy,tired came from, pushed through the group and gathered Five into a hug, damned be the consequences.

"I swear to God, Five, if you ever to that again I'll-" Pythia cut off as the wall of memories hit her and Five jerked back.

"Pythia, you should know better than to do that!" Five admonished her. "How much did you see?"

Pythia's eyes filled with tears and she fainted.

"Shit."

-UA-

Five siblings watched Five make a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich. Pythia sat in a corner, unable to get the image of everyone's death out of her head. Diego's glassy eyes haunted her and the slim hand that he held could have only been hers, yet her body was…thankfully?... trapped under the rubble. The rubble of their home. The grief had hit her first, then the choking loneliness. Loneliness was something that Pythia was familiar with, but nothing this bad.

"What did she see?" Diego asked Five.

"I'm fine." Pythia stood up as she said this, absently brushing off Five's suit and fixing his tie. "There, it's not Five unless the attire is pristine."

While in front of him, Pythia mouthed only one word, the only one that mattered right now.

"Vanya?"

Five shook his head.

"So, are any of the rest of us going to be parley into this secret conversation?" Allison loudly asked.

"Ah, fuck off." Pythia replied, channelling Klaus' level of care. "I have more important concerns that letting you in on our shit. Also, Diego, can you calm it with the mistrust. It really is Five."

Diego's glare deepened, but he didn't refute his sister. Eventually, the tension in the room was lifted by Luther suggesting they all went to bed. Pythia was one of the last to head up, waiting for Five to finish three more sandwiches.

"You know… if it means anything…" Five began, scowling, Pythia reading discomfort from him. "You and Diego… I think you'd be good for him."

"When I left the Academy, I saved up enough to get myself… unadopted." Pythia added. "I'm actually legally Pythia Apollus now."

Five grinned at the reference, before his face turned dark again.

"How did Ben die?" He asked softly. "I did read Vanya's book, but…"

"She was awfully vague. On purpose, but it was difficult to read." Pythia finished. "I can… show you I guess…"

Five gratefully grabbed her hand and the two of them closed their eyes. Once they reopened them, Pythia's were shaking terribly, and Five's lips had thinned into near nothingness.

"I… I'm going to bed." Pythia speedily rushed out, before racing up to her room to cry, the exhibition unlocking painful memories.

Five stared after her, guilt and remorse filling the room.

-UA-

The next day, in the pouring rain, they held the funeral. Everyone wore their best black clothes, and sported black umbrellas, apart from Five, who wore his uniform, Klaus whose pink umbrella was barely big enough for himself, and Pythia, who had nothing black to wear and simply wore her normal clothes and shivered in the rain until Diego shoved her under Five's umbrella.

When the two brothers' fight began, Pythia decided to break it up by screaming loudly.

"What's wrong?" Diego asked, racing over to her.

"Fuck being angry at idiot face here." She replied. "Be angry at Father. At me, even, for doing _this_."

Pythia grabbed onto all the grief she felt about Diego in the future, telling herself that this was for the greater good, as she aikido-flipped him over her shoulder before squaring off against Luther.

"Do you want to go, Luther?" She offered sweetly. "Or are you going to behave. Because I'm on a really short tether and we don't have _time_ for this."

Luther shook his head and stormed inside. Pythia rolled her eyes at him, and at Allison who followed him. Pogo and Mum went back into the house as well, leaving Klaus, Five and herself out with the ashes.

"You know, Klaus, I reckon Ben hates this statue. Maybe I should have let Luther break it." Pythia smiled at her brother, blowing him a kiss as she walked away. "Either way…" She leaned into Klaus' personal space. "Tell Ben to stop laughing so loud, his happiness is intoxicating and frankly unsuitable for a funeral."

Pythia wished she could bottle up Klaus' gobsmacked face and equally gobsmacked emotions to share at parties, or Christmas, because it was priceless as she walked back into the Academy and into her room. She decided to stay a while, it was not as if she'd live for much longer, and as Father was now dead, she could remain in the house without the man who drove her out. The lead walls were a comfort she had long forgotten out in the city, where the intense emotions of people's daily lives had made her, at times, inconsolable.

Either way, it was a warm bed, a roof, and a possibility of free dinners. What more could a person want?!

**Note - Welcome to my first work of 2019!**

Pythia is my own creation.  
Her powers are empathy and telepathy, but she only reads minds of those she can touch, unless the person is projecting.  
Any queries, pop them in the reviews and I shall answer!


End file.
